Just a month into 2019 and already the bloom is wearing off. It’s easy to lose the joy of Christmas and hope of the new year in the blur and repetition of “normal life,” and troubles forgotten during the holiday excitement have resurfaced if they ever went away.
Where are you, God? I don’t see you anymore…
Isaiah has some wonderful words of encouragement for a time like this. You know them well from singing them in church (whether you love or hate the song! “On Eagle’s Wings” tends to polarize, I’ve noticed, sending some people running while others claim it as their all-time favorite). If you wonder where God is right now in your life, you might want to read the entire passage from Isaiah 40:27-31:
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hid from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
God is near! He only asks that you wait for him.
That’s hard to do when we want to take control and make things happen. But waiting on God is not passive or mindless or senseless.
- It is rooted in faith—In the certain knowledge that God is good and that he loves you and is working in your life for good;
- And it is grounded in hope—in forward-looking, confident anticipation.
Read those words from Isaiah again. The Lord knows you inside and out. He never tires. And he gives strength to those who wait for him. Ponder what the last verse means for your life. For example, I consider what it means to mount up with wings like an eagle:
- Eagles’ wings are strong. They not only lift the bird, they help it soar.
- Eagles fly above the mess of the everyday, in the pure air of heaven.
- From their lofty vantage, they get a big-picture view of their world.
- That view lets them see with clarity.
Those are four things I want and need in these dreary winter days: Power. Release from the mess of the everyday. A big-picture perspective. A clear view of my life.
Lord, help me wait.
This article was first published on The Great Adventure Blog on January 9, 2014.
Photo by Janez Podnar on Pexels
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About Sarah Christmyer
Sarah Christmyer is co-developer with Jeff Cavins of The Great Adventure Catholic Bible study program. She is author or co-author of a number of the studies. Sarah has thirty years of experience leading and teaching Bible studies. She helped launch Catholic Scripture Study and is co-author of “Genesis Part I: God and His Creation” and “Genesis Part II: God and His Family,” published by Emmaus Road. Raised in a strong evangelical family, she was received into the Catholic Church in 1992. Sarah also writes at comeintotheword.com.
Where is God, am I now groping in the dark? No!! God is not that far, Here I am Lord, the most response on call. But who’s calling? Now I recall the meeting of Angel with Jacob at Mahanaim. He realizes God is with him and he has angelic protection. I don’t know exactly know what this means. In
some way, angelic being that are normally unseen were now made visible to
Jacob, and he interacted with them. Perhaps God wanted Jacob to know how great
His care was for him and his family. So too in me, though I am in darkness, not that I’m meeting Him, He is in fact, meeting me to carry me in the Eagle’s wings. What a beautiful feeling looking at the whole view of the Earth!!!